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Monday, October 30, 2017

people received flyers falsly claiming certain immigrents have criminal records as gang members, rapists and murderers. The flyer
named names and gave addresses. King County Sheriff John Urquhart
looked into this and found false allegations, and that people listed
often no longer lived at those addresses.

This flyer was put out by "Respect Washington",
and, according to Dow Constantine, was funded by a hate group in
Michigan. It's purpose appears to be to scare people into voting for
people the flyers states are against Burien's status as a sanctuary
city. It's result could be more sinister, as it appears to encourage
vigilante acts against innocent people.

The Question Needs to be Asked

How
will we respond if or when our island is attacked in a similar
way? Hate groups have been targeting liberal cities and places. Think
Charlottesville and Berkerly.

How can we be proactive to prepare for such an event?

And how, given that there are groups activily spreading hate and lies, can we be at least equally active in spreading truth and compassion?

Friday, April 7, 2017

The news last night--cruise
missiles heading for Syria--hurt my heart so much! I have never felt such
deep emotional pain. I thought of all the people who have had to flee
the war. I thought of Jemilla and her five children who fled first to
Turkey, then came here for medical attention she could not get there, of
Safa, who fled Aleppo when there was not food, no work, no homes, no
hospital, no diapers for the baby.

Most
especially, I thought of Jamila "Rose Anne" saying in tears, "When I
left Syria, the county was stable; now it is destroyed." And that was
before the terrible events of this week!

Prayer
helped a little. Talking with Rifaat helped a little. Even so, I found
myself wondering if there was some drug I could take that would help me
escape from the pain. I now understand why people get addicted to drugs
and alcohol!

I was exhausted this morning from mourning all night, so Rifaat took me out for breakfast at Sporty's. "Lets Make A Deal" was on the big screen T.V., as usual.

Breakfast at Sporty's

Suddenly, I understood the silly
costumes, the exorbitant prizes, the anticipation, the excitement. It
makes a wonderful distraction for people caught in pain, emotional or
physical. So, It has it's place. But I don't want my life to be about distraction, so I tend to take it in small doses. Distraction that is (not life!).Then I called one of my spiritual teachers, Khadija.Khadija
said that those of us who are emphatic or who are on a spiritual path,
are more sensitive now, as things heat up. That some of the greatest
Spiritual growth and insights seem to happen when the world is in
greatest turmoil.

She
reminded me how important it is to stay grounded in the Divine and in
one's center (or Dantien, or Hara), and gave me a practice to help with
that. She told me that the usual translation of "Allah Ho Akbar" as "God
is the Greatest" is incorrect; it compares God, and God is incomparable.
A better translation she says, is "Peace (Divine Peace) is Power."

God's Peace is Power.
If I can stay grounded in that, perhaps I can weather these times and
keep my sanity, and maybe even bring some peace to those around me!

Thursday, April 6, 2017

When Joy saw me with pencil and paper in hand, she asked if I was taking notes for our community of Quakers.
Well, yes, sort of. Drawing while listening actually helps me take in and
remember more.

Our Washington State attorney general, Bob Ferguson,
received a standing ovation from the packed Methodist church at 7:00
am this morning. I sketched while he
talked.

Here are some things I remember him
saying:

Trump's executive order banning
immigrants from certain countries was not entirely unexpected, given
his campaign speeches. So the attorney general's office was geared up
for quick action. The order came out on Friday evening; the attorney
general's team spent the weekend, literally night and day, looking at
the order carefully to determine it's legality, putting together the
case, and gathering support from Industries and businesses that were
adversely affected, such as Amazon and the University of WA. That
way, they were ready to file an injunction before the end of the
business day on Monday.

What I did not know, is that
Obama had apparently tried a similar executive order with no
better success. “It's not about Trump or Obama”, Ferguson said,
“It's about the law.” Trump's legal team made the claim in their
brief that the president's order was not subject to the law. They
confirmed this by telephone at the hearing. Even the president is
not above the law. That's why we have a checks and balances
system.

Trump's claim that the executive order
was for “national security” was disputed because :

1.The head of Homeland Security stated
that banning people by national origin actually makes America less
safe from terrorist attacks.

2.When an action or law is challenged
legally, the courts look at the intent of the law. Because Trump had
stated in his campaign that he would ban Muslims, it was clear to the
court that his executive order was indeed based on religious
discrimination.

The WA State Attorney's Office has put
out a 100 page advisory for cities and institutions (such as schools)
who are concerned about cooperation with ICE. The attorny's office is working with the mayor of Seattle around becoming a sanctuary city.

Trump's claim he will roll back
regulations aimed at environmental safeguards (instituted by the Obama administration) will be legally unenforceable.

Friday, March 24, 2017

My cousin Riki's house in Bangkok is in
a village in the middle of a swamp. When I first visited, in 1997,
every house in the village had a boat for the family "car". Houses line
the canals--the klong--each with steps down to the water.

We
arrived by four wheeled taxi, though. The taxi let us off at the gate
of the Buddhist temple. We walked past the crematorium, past the temple,
through the 40-60 dogs lounging in the shade. People abandoned dogs at
the temple to be cared for; no Pet Protectors there! No neutering or
spaying either.

We dragged our suitcases over a narrow
foot bridge and came to a sidewalk with water on both sides. Riki's
house is along this sidewalk. Her house is on a cement foundation, with
the first floor more of an open air family area and the living area on
the second floor. There are watermarks about 1 1/2 feet up the walls of the first floor, left over from occasional floods.

I
visited her again in 2009, with my uncle and aunt, Dick and Jean Hall.
The Halls were missionaries in Thailand and in Laos in the late 1950's,
when the Vietnamese war spilled over into the ongoing civil war in Laos.
Dick and Jean took me to visit friends in Thailand and Laos, telling me
stories of their lives and people as we traveled. I met the 80 year old
dentist who taught Dick to pull teeth in Namtha. I met the Lao man who
was inspired to become a doctor when, as a child of 8, he watched Dick
do surgery on a man with a shotgun wound to his face. I met many such
people and heard their stories!

I
plan to create a book, using my sketches and notes of that trip,
featuring Dick and Jean's stories. As I develop this project, I plan to
send out occasional posts such as this one. You are welcome to comment!

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Last night I looked back way further than 2016, all the way to 1999, into my sailing journals from when Bob and I cruised the San Juan Islands in our little Cascade 29 sailboat, Cardaea. This is Bob at the helm on our first cruise. This is from my journal:

Seals popped up their heads to gaze at us curiously. At 7 pm, we slipped between Blakely Rock and Restoration Point on Bainbridge Island and wound our way through crab pot bouys, following a family of geese. We set anchor at the head of Blakely Harbor.

That evening, we fished a wine bottle out of the water with a message in it. The message, decorated with child drawn hearts, said,

Whoever finds this note, I will love.

A boy of about 5 on the boat anchored next to us watched with pretended indifference as we read the note.

As dark fell and the full moon peeked briefly through the clouds, we looked across the sound into Elliot Bay. Seattle was a fairy tale city, with a necklace of golden lights along the water front.

Ah, those were the days! Bob died in 2005, and I'll never have a sailing partner like him!

Monday, January 2, 2017

When do we close the doors on parts of ourselves? Sometimes it just takes a chance word from someone we respect.

Many
years ago, I drew a little person—an elf?--into a still life in art
class. He just seemed to want to be there, so I drew him in. The teacher
asked me why, and when I answered, “he wanted to be there”, she said,
“You mean YOU wanted him there.” I don't know why, but a door closed for
me then. It seemed that allowing something to emerge from my
subconscious onto the paper wasn't allowed, and I've felt...limited in my
artwork since then.

I
thought I'd make a Christmas card design. Alena suggests using hand
made or interesting papers for the background. I made my own background
papers. That's as far as I got, but it was enough! I'm back in my studio
having fun! When the papers are dry, I'll do the next step.

I tried both regular copy paper, and 90# watercolor paper

Recipe for Crinkle Paper Background:

Wet paper all over on one side

Crinkle it up into a ball

Drop paint on in here and there, until you have as much color as you want. Remember, the inside of the ball will be uncolored unless you take extra care to drop color deep into the crevasses.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Tim and I have a commitment to do Qi Gung at the beach every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:15. We have been going rain or shine for several years now. Sometimes a seal will watch us. Once we watched eagles mating high up in a Douglas Fir. Once we saw sea lions playing close to shore.

Sea Lettuce at Tramp Harbor

Some days are so foggy we cannot see the other side of the Bay, let alone Seattle or Des Moines. Some days feel quiet, with soft gray clouds and smooth water. Some days the rain drops make a pattern of circles on the water. Some days the sky is so blue, you want to sing.

In October, little birds flock together and practice arial maneuvers above us. A line of foam accentuates the green of the seaweed bunched at the tide line.

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